At the beginning of January 2022, I flew across the Atlantic Ocean for a new adventure: a 4-month exchange to Vancouver. The start of this adventure was far from ideal; In addition to a dose of healthy tension, I also brought the Covid-19 virus with me, which led to me having to spend my first 10 days in a Canadian quarantine hotel.
When I was finally allowed to go outside after this slow start, my exchange gained momentum. I studied at Simon Fraser University (SFU), which has a campus on top of Burnaby Mountain, in the east of the city. From this mountain you had a beautiful panoramic view of the vast city of Vancouver. The buildings were large and made of concrete, and I slept in a tiny room on a plastic mattress. The architect of the campus was known for designing many prisons in Canada, which didn't surprise me.
Life on campus was like living in a typical high school movie. You often went to the ice hockey and basketball games of the university team, there was a gym and a swimming pool that you could use, you partied at house parties with red cups (Canadians apparently always take off their shoes at parties, strange people like you if you ask me), and you got your food from a large canteen that served meals 24/7. This was also open after going out, ideal for a late night snack, and thus became one of my favorite places.
Because almost all exchange students lived on the same campus, a close-knit group quickly emerged with which you could do all kinds of things: go out in the city (an hour by bus to the center, that is), hike in the beautiful surroundings, play football, eat together and even study occasionally. We also had a regular drinks evening with all exchange students: on Tuesday evening the Biercraft, the only pub on campus, turned into a kind of Sarphati drinks. You could also ski on slopes that were directly next to the city. In the evening these were illuminated and you could ski down with a view of all the lights in the city, for me one of the most beautiful experiences in Vancouver.
I can be brief about the studying: the level was not very high compared to the UvA, the education seemed much more schoollike to me. Still, I certainly took a few interesting courses, for example about the geography of tourism. They also view the world slightly differently in Canada, and I have learned a lot about the indigenous communities that live there, for example.
From Vancouver I was also able to make several trips: a weekend to Seattle, which is just across the border, a week to the mountains of Banff in central Canada where it was -30° at night and, to top it all off, 10 days to Hawaii at the end of the semester; an unforgettable trip to paradise and extra nice after so many months of rain and cold.
I can highly recommend an exchange to everyone: being away from Amsterdam for a few months and having to arrange everything on your own teaches you a lot about yourself, and you also make friends from all kinds of different countries and I now know people to rely on in many European cities. to search. The long journey and even the hotel quarantine were worth it three times over for me, an experience I will never forget.
When I was finally allowed to go outside after this slow start, my exchange gained momentum. I studied at Simon Fraser University (SFU), which has a campus on top of Burnaby Mountain, in the east of the city. From this mountain you had a beautiful panoramic view of the vast city of Vancouver. The buildings were large and made of concrete, and I slept in a tiny room on a plastic mattress. The architect of the campus was known for designing many prisons in Canada, which didn't surprise me.
Life on campus was like living in a typical high school movie. You often went to the ice hockey and basketball games of the university team, there was a gym and a swimming pool that you could use, you partied at house parties with red cups (Canadians apparently always take off their shoes at parties, strange people like you if you ask me), and you got your food from a large canteen that served meals 24/7. This was also open after going out, ideal for a late night snack, and thus became one of my favorite places.
Because almost all exchange students lived on the same campus, a close-knit group quickly emerged with which you could do all kinds of things: go out in the city (an hour by bus to the center, that is), hike in the beautiful surroundings, play football, eat together and even study occasionally. We also had a regular drinks evening with all exchange students: on Tuesday evening the Biercraft, the only pub on campus, turned into a kind of Sarphati drinks. You could also ski on slopes that were directly next to the city. In the evening these were illuminated and you could ski down with a view of all the lights in the city, for me one of the most beautiful experiences in Vancouver.
I can be brief about the studying: the level was not very high compared to the UvA, the education seemed much more schoollike to me. Still, I certainly took a few interesting courses, for example about the geography of tourism. They also view the world slightly differently in Canada, and I have learned a lot about the indigenous communities that live there, for example.
From Vancouver I was also able to make several trips: a weekend to Seattle, which is just across the border, a week to the mountains of Banff in central Canada where it was -30° at night and, to top it all off, 10 days to Hawaii at the end of the semester; an unforgettable trip to paradise and extra nice after so many months of rain and cold.
I can highly recommend an exchange to everyone: being away from Amsterdam for a few months and having to arrange everything on your own teaches you a lot about yourself, and you also make friends from all kinds of different countries and I now know people to rely on in many European cities. to search. The long journey and even the hotel quarantine were worth it three times over for me, an experience I will never forget.
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